Summer Budget 2015 – Landlords Reactions

Reply to the comment left by “Ros .” at “25/08/2015 – 17:20“:

Hi Ros

I’ve just sent him the following via the contact page of his website ……

FAO Martin Silman

Mark Alexander
.

Another suggestion I just found that was made by Charmaine a few weeks ago, was regarding the possibility of a judicial review – she mentioned that this can be done when a policy is ‘irrational’… Just thought I’d pull that one back out for us, in case it could lead to anything.

Reply to the comment left by “Mark Alexander” at “25/08/2015 – 13:45“:

Mark: that information is in the public domain already – MP basic salary is £74000 (plus extra for committees and ministerial or cabinet posts) and you can get a breakdown of expenses at http://www.parliamentary-standards.org.uk/. Don’t forget to add the value of the very generous pension and severance arrangements too.

Reply to the comment left by “Barry Fitzpatrick” at “25/08/2015 – 17:20“:

Barry, I agree with your earlier comment on higher taxes for property income across the board. I would rather see higher taxes on actual profit, than normal taxes on non-existent profit. I recommended 30% tax across the board to the RLA for alternative proposals, as I don’t think any less would be considered.

Neil and Barry only highly geared landlords would support both your suggestions of hitting us all .Why should the prudent landlords with little or no mortgage debt subsidise the highly geared.I will fight 100% to persuade GO to reverse his proposals as i believe they are plain nasty but i am not a turkey about to look forward to christmas.Don’t forget a majority of BTL is purchased without borrowing so don’t alienate that majority – we need their support

If you want to find out information about your MP’s interests, look here:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmregmem.htm

I have had a look at the interests of those MPs on the Treasury Committee who will scrutinise the Finance Bill. The interesting ones for us are:

Bill Esterson, Labour – owns 2 flats on Kent and a house in Chatham

Stephen Hammond, Conservative – holiday home in Portugal is owned in a company

Jacob Rees-Mogg, Conservative – owns residential property in London

Chris Philp, Conservative – is a share holder in a number of partnerships involved in property, finance and investments including Pluto Capital Management LLP

Reply to the comment left by “Mark Alexander” at “25/08/2015 – 14:29“:

Hi Mark

In 2014/15 your MP’s expenditure was only £31k, the biggest element being office costs of just over £20k. Assuming a salary of £74k, and rounding off the tax bands for simplicity and clarity, his tax this year would be £18,800, and his net pay £55,200. If his office costs of £20k were disallowed in 2020/21, his tax would be £22,800 (up 21.3%) and his net pay would be £51,200 (down 7.2%).

These are not dramatic changes. In the four previous years his expenses exceeded £100k. In 2013/2014 they were £172k; the largest item was staffing at £129k.

If we used these figures, assuming a salary of £74k, and rounding off the tax bands, his tax this year would still be £18,800, and his net pay £55,200. If his staffing costs of £129k were disallowed in 2020/21, his taxable pay would be £203k, depriving him of the personal allowance and pushing him into the 45% band.

His tax would be £51,650 (up 175%), and his net pay would be £22,350 (down 59.5%).

If anyone wants to do a similar exercise for his or her MP (and I think we all should) just download the spreadsheet from the top of the lead article. Put 74,000 in the red box on the salary line. Then put the amount you want to disallow in the red boxes on the next two lines, and the results will appear.

Reply to the comment left by “Appalled Landlord” at “25/08/2015 – 20:47“:

Hi AL, this exactly what I did with my letter to Zac Goldsmith. I’m still awaiting his response..

My MPs expenditure for 2014/15 was also a lot lower than that for 2013/14. Along the same line percentage wise as Mark’s MP. I think I noticed that in the original draft of the letter that someone clever on here wrote about using MPs salary expenses as an example, the figures for 2013/14 were also used, so maybe the 2014-15 figures are not complete yet?

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